Evers Slammed Over Buyouts by Democrats

The Evers rule of governance was exposed for all in today's Troy Record which you can read here. When confronted by town Democrats with his continued mismanagement of town finances Evers responded with a classic rule of thumb that there's nothing in writing that says I can't do it so I can. As a result, Evers says he can dispense thousands of dollars in public funds to those he chooses with no enabling legislation approved by the elected town board.

In this case, Evers "justifies" his disbursement of thousands of dollars in insurance buyouts to employees who are simply not covered by a union contract affecting other town employees. At least two employees were given large checks last year for not taking town health insurance, employees who are not part of the bargaining unit which negotiated a contract permitting the payments under certain circumstances.

But wait, this is the same Mark Evers who simply ignores laws prohibiting actions he does not like or agree with so he governs both ways. If there is nothing in writing that says I can't spend town money by giving it away to people not covered under a union contract, then I will give it away. And if there is a law which says I cannot say, appoint someone to the town payroll without a majority vote of the town board, I will simply ignore it and put the person on the payroll and town board and the written law be dammed.

That should cover all the bases nicely and that is exactly how Mark Evers continues to "govern" and mismanage this town with reckless disregard for the rule of law. The examples are too many to cast here in this special Saturday edition, but they are littered in the hundreds of entries of this blog. They include last year's disbursement of an $83,000 check to his political benefactors in the Water 14 contract just a day after a town board meeting in December. Evers was repeatedly warned that all of the available bond money had been spent and that no funds could be spent without further voter approval and authorization. Instead, Evers ordered a check cut to Casale Excavating behind the Board's back which came out of the town General Fund, part of some $268,000 which had to be repaid as part of a court settlement which saw Casale get another million dollars from the town without any voter say.

So when laws are written prohibiting an action, he ignores them and when nothing is in writing that says he can't be an irresponsible and reckless fool with public money, he hides behind the absurdity that absent a written law stating he can't do something, he can do what he pleases. Let's see now, there is nothing in writing that says you have to be employed by the town to receive a pay check from the town. So Evers can simply order a check cut to anyone until the town board passes a regulation or law saying that before Evers may issue a pay check to anyone, they must first be appointed to a town job? Hence we have a Supervisor who says that because there is nothing in writing saying someone can't receive an insurance buyout payment who isn't covered by a union contract, then he, Evers can do as he pleases and issues checks to anyone he pleases.

With this kind of logic governing the thinking of the Supervisor, the town board will be very, very busy passing resolutions stopping Evers from doing countless things most people would never think of doing simply because they know it's wrong.

There is more damaging news yet to come from the insurance buyouts including Evers refusal to take a contractual employee off the public dole with a lifetime health insurance policy at town expense despite the absence of any enabling legislation permitting the payments. Again, if there is nothing in writing saying Tom Murley can't have health insurance for life after just 5 ½ years of employment in the town then Mark Evers will pay him. Yes, most of us would laugh at the notion of allowing someone to get free health insurance for life at more than $5,000 a year after a few years on the town payroll. But this is North Greenbush, a town plagued by a Supervisor with no moral compass and no regard for the value of our hard earned tax dollars.

Dan Ashley's letter to the town board and his press release are posted on the town Democratic Committee blog here.